Kenya massacres raise spectre of ethnic violence

Six years after Kenya erupted into ferocious ethnic battles and post-election violence, security guard John Mboya is fearful once again, after
twin massacres on the coast brought political rivalries to the surface.

“When the leaders argue, it is people like me who will
suffer if a fight starts,” bemoaned Mboya, recalling the intensity of
2007-8 violence, when communities in his crowded slum in the capital Nairobi
divided along tribal lines and turned on each other after disputed elections.

“People are very worried, they don’t understand what will
happen,” he said.

Attacks last week on the coastal Mpeketoni district left at
least 60 dead and were claimed by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Shabab insurgents,
though President Uhuru Kenyatta blamed “well-planned, orchestrated and
politically motivated ethnic violence” carried out by “local
political networks”.

The reaction served to highlight the intensity of the rivalry
between Kenyatta and his old rival Raila Odinga, a former prime minister who
failed in a bid for the presidency last year.

“Kenya is on such a knife-edge that the intensifying
prospect of instability has millions of Kenyans deeply worried,” the Star
newspaper said in an editorial.

Bitter memories are still fresh from 2007, when elections
escalated into ethnic conflict in which more than 1 200 people were killed,
violence for which Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto face crimes against
humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“It is certainly not inevitable the political rhetoric
could descend into violence, but it is possible, and that is the worrying
part,” said Cedric Barnes of the International Crisis Group.

Externally, there are major threats from Somalia’s al-Shabab, who
have carried out a string of revenge attacks for Kenya’s military role in
southern Somalia, including last year’s siege of the Westgate shopping mall
that left 67 people dead.

Western security officials—and the Shabab themselves—are
adamant it was them, albeit with local Kenyan knowledge from recruits or
Islamist supporters on the ground.

Dividing Kenyans

“The terrorists have us in a bind, divided and inattentive
to the larger picture,” former deputy president Musalia Mudavadi wrote in
Kenya’s media.

The gunmen appeared to choose the target and timing of the
attack for maximum impact.

“The target was ideal if they wanted to divide
Kenyans,” one Western security official said, noting it targeted a town
settled decades ago by the Kikuyu people, the same tribe as Kenyatta.

“The president took it as an attack on his people,”
the security source added.

Tensions were already high following Odinga’s announcement last
month that he planned to stage mass anti-government rallies on July 7, the
anniversary of protests for multiparty democracy in the 1990s.

Anti-Western sentiment has grown in some quarters, over the
backing for the ICC trials and Odinga, who has also recently returned from
several months in the US.

On Wednesday, youths torched effigies of Odinga in central
Nairobi along with British and American flags.

Despite efforts to heal the wounds of the ethnic killings,
tensions still run deep between communities, with many key grievances that fed
into the violence—most notably land ownership rights and claims that
minorities are being marginalised—still unresolved.

The 2007-8 violence erupted when Odinga accused then president
Mwai Kibaki of rigging his way to re-election, but what began as political
riots quickly turned into ethnic killings of Kibaki’s Kikuyu tribe, the
country’s largest single group.

In turn, they launched reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its
worst wave of violence since independence in 1963.

Kenya’s influential Daily Nation newspaper has called for
leaders to focus on the country, warning that recent attacks should not be
“used as an excuse to muzzle the opposition or stifle debate”.

“Working together to douse the flames consuming us all is
far more urgent than doggedly sticking to our own positions,” it warned. -
AFP